Choosing a Lawyer – Some Crucial Information

Possible questions for the solicitor

• Am I paying for this initial call or is it free of charge?
• Do you concentrate solely on drink and drug driving law or do you also have a general criminal practice: in other words is drink and drug driving defence work a sideline?
• Do you have long and established contacts with expert scientific witnesses who may – perhaps vitally – assist in my defence?

Possible questions for the solicitor

You know what some say about statistics and at the very least they should be questioned. What does the solicitor say about the following:

• How many of your clients actually pleaded guilty so, in fact, there never was a trial?
• If there was a trial, did all of the prosecution witnesses actually turn up?
• Was the prosecution case weak to start with, in other words was it a sure-fire defence winner from the word go?

Real trial victories are where the case could have gone either way and it was the skill of the lawyer which swung the decision in the client’s favour.

Possible questions for the solicitor

• If you’re a specialist drink/drug driving solicitor then why would you need, with my money, to instruct a so-called “specialist barrister” for the trial?
• If you send my trial out to some “specialist barrister” then doesn’t that mean that I’ll then be paying for two lawyers?
• Is it perhaps the case that you have so much work that you have to send trials out to such so-called “specialist barristers”? In other words are you simply making a virtue out of necessity?

Possible questions for the solicitor

• Will it be you and only you dealing with my case, or will I find, when I call your office, that you’re not available and that I end up speaking to your secretary or some assistant solicitor who has little knowledge of my case?
• Are you available to speak about my case in the evening or at weekends, when – though it may not be convenient for you – it will be convenient for me?
• If I appeal a guilty verdict in the Magistrate’s Court, to the Crown Court, are you qualified to represent me in the Crown Court or will you then also have to instruct a barrister?

Possible questions for the solicitor

• This is really what you need to study: real comments by real client’s!

Video: Motoring Justice – Drink Driving